1. Technical Field
This invention relates to tobacco wrappers and, more particularly, to combined tobacco leaf-rolled wrappers and packaging for creating home-made cigarettes.
2. Prior Art
Cigarettes have been around for many centuries, but it wasn't until the 1800s that they gained their paper wrappers and came to some degree of acceptability. In France, especially with women, smoking cigarettes was considered the height of fashion. Ask any smoker today why they find so much pleasure in a cigarette and it is very likely that a plethora of reasons will be given. Whether inhaling the sweet tobacco calms the nerves during stressful times or simply holding a cylindrical smoke allows one to feel enveloped in an aura of cool, smoking provides much enjoyment to the many who indulge in this habit.
While cigarettes are very popular, quality smokes tend to be extremely expensive, especially for college students and financially-struggling young adults just entering the job market. Premium brands can cost, on the low end, between $5.00 and $8.00 per pack in some areas of the country. Seeking a way to enjoy a good cigarette without having to pay a fortune, young smokers often choose to just make their own. One solution is to purchase cheap, inferior paper, then wrap up their own chosen blends inside. While this method may be an effective way for cash-strapped individuals to create an affordable smoke, such a makeshift means can lack glamour and sophistication when image is just as important as taste. Obviously, it would be advantageous to provide users an affordable means to produce their own quality cigarettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,471 to Fitzgerald discloses cigarettes that possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive materials, which can have the forms of liquid or paste formulations (e.g., aqueous formulations incorporating starch or modified starch), are applied to a continuous paper web on the cigarette making apparatus. The formulation is applied to the paper web using an application apparatus possessing rollers or a series of rollers. For example, additive material is applied to the roll face of a transfer roller due to roll interaction of that transfer roller with a pick-up roller; roll interaction of the transfer roller with an application roller causes transfer of the additive material from the transfer roller to the application roller; and additive material from the application roller is transferred to the paper web that passes between the application roller and a back-up roller. A radiant dryer is used to dry the additive material that has been applied to the paper web. The radiant dryer is located on one component of a two component assembly that is used to manufacture cigarettes. A first component of the two component assembly provides a source of paper web, applies additive material to that web in a pattern and dries the paper web; while a second component receives the paper web, supplies tobacco filler and manufactures a cigarette rod from the paper web and tobacco filler. Unfortunately, this prior art example does not provide a method for allowing a user to wrap their own cigarettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,652 to Fournier discloses a tobacco smoking article wrapper which selectively reduces the content of gaseous components in the smoke delivered during the use of the smoking article. The gaseous components can be low molecular weight aldehydes in the smoke produced during combustion/pyrolysis of the smoking article. The wrapper can comprise cigarette paper having an ammonium-containing compound filler therein for reducing the aldehyde content in the smoke. The ammonium-containing compound filler evolves ammonia upon combustion/pyrolysis of the smoking article which can chemically react with aldehydes in tobacco smoke and/or modify the combustion/pyrolysis reactions thereby reducing the initial formation of aldehydes to selectively reduce such aldehydes from the smoke inhaled by a smoker. The ammonium-containing compound can be magnesium ammonium phosphate used alone or in combination with one or more other fillers such as calcium carbonate. Unfortunately, this prior art example does not provide a method for allowing a user to wrap their own cigarettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,346 to Bushby discloses a smoking article comprising a wrapper enwrapping a tobacco smoking material. The wrapper comprising a ceramic material and is capable of mechanically trapping mainly aqueous particulate phase materials in the sidestream smoke, thereby reducing sidestream smoke deliveries considerably despite the use of the wrapper with conventional tobacco materials. Unfortunately, this prior art example does not provide a method for allowing a user to wrap their own cigarettes.
Accordingly, the present invention is disclosed in order to overcome the above noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing an apparatus that is convenient and easy to use, lightweight yet durable in design, and designed for creating home-made cigarettes. The present invention is simple to use, inexpensive, and designed for many years of repeated use.